Getinge Says Slow Europe Capital-Goods Market Hurt Sales

Getinge AB (GETIB), a Swedish maker of
sterilization systems sold in more than 100 countries, said
demand for its products weakened during the fourth quarter,
hurting orders and sales.

Full-year sales contracts received and invoicing rose by
nearly 3 percent, excluding currency fluctuations and
acquisitions, which was lower than the expected growth, Getinge,
based in the Swedish town with the same name, said in a
statement today.

“The demand for capital goods was particularly weak in
western Europe and eastern Europe,” Getinge said.

Pretax profit was about 3.6 billion kronor ($555 million)
last year, excluding one-time acquisition and restructuring
costs of 170 million kronor related to the purchase of Kinetic
Concepts Inc.’s TSS division, Getinge said. The average estimate
in a Bloomberg survey of 13 analysts was for pretax profit of
3.71 billion kronor.

Getinge dropped as much as 9.4 percent to 195.7 kronor, the
steepest intraday decline since March 24, 2009, and was trading
down 8.4 percent at 9:10 a.m. in Stockholm. The stock has fallen
10 percent this year.